And one very pissed-off politician’s son, tied up downstairs.
“Should’ve let me kill him in that fucking garage,” Dredyn growls, pressing a hand to his side. The makeshift bandage is soaked through, blood seeping between his fingers.
Mara grabs the first aid kit from Jasper who brings it back from the bathroom, and sets it beside Dredyn who is sprawled across the couch.
“Killing him would be mercy,” she says.
She moves with grace as she places all the supplies she’ll need to stitch Dredyn’s stab wound up. There’s a dark bruise blooming on her jaw and dried blood matted to the side of her hair, but she’s breathtaking.
She places a hand over Dredyn’s, the antiseptic wipe in the other. “Let me see it.”
He hesitates. “That alcohol pad’s gonna burn like hell.”
“Quit being a baby and let me clean it,” she snaps.
Jasper and I share a look and stifle our laughs as Dredyn grudgingly moves his hand. He hisses through his teeth the second she touches the wound, gripping the edge of the counter.
“Who knew the big bad wolf was such a wimp,” Mara says smugly, dabbing the blood away.
“You try getting stabbed by some lanky-ass,” Dredyn mutters, grimacing. “Also, a ‘thank you’ would be nice, once in a while.”
Mara ignores him and looks over at Jasper and I. “Now what?” she asks.
Jasper raises a brow and signs,“We kill him. Simple.”
“Fuck me,” Dredyn mutters as Mara finishes up placing butterfly stitches along his torso. The knife wound was shallow, thank god.
“No, thanks. Not until we’ve all had showers.”
Jasper snorts, but Mara catches his grin as she packs up the supplies.
I drag a hand through my hair, sighing. “It’s not that simple. If we kill him, we’ve still got nothing to leverage against the Syndicate. But if we keep him...”
Dredyn sits up with a wince. “Are we forgetting he murdered Jasper’s sister?”
“I’m not forgetting,” I say. “But maybe he can give us intel first.”
Mara raises a brow. “What kind of intel?”
“The Syndicate Leader. The real one,”Jasper signs.
Mara shakes her head. “They change faces constantly. There are layers of decoys. No one knows who’s actually pulling strings, not even my father.”
“I find that hard to believe,” Dredyn says.
She turns to him, eyes flashing. “You think I’m lying?”
Jasper signs,“fake his death. Send a toe. Burn his face. Anything to give us more time to torture him for Evie.”
“We aren’t killing him. Not yet,” I say again.
Dredyn doesn’t drop it. “I didn’t say you were lying. I just think it’s insane that the goddamn President wouldn’t know who runs the Syndicate, and that you wouldn’t even have a guess.”
Mara folds her arms. “If you haven’t noticed, I’m not exactly Daddy’s favorite. I don’t get access to classified intel, I get shoved in white dresses and paraded around.”
“Frame him. Make him look like a traitor to the Syndicate.”He’s tuning out the fight now. Tunnel vision locked on strategy.
Mara tilts her head. “You think you can actually do anything to stop them? I know how much firepower OCK has, but not enough for a fucking revolution.”
